Comparison Between The ACT And SAT Examination

ACT or SAT- What Do Schools Prefer?

The Dilemma

As a student, you are always faced with the dilemma of whether you
should appear for the ACT or SAT test. The
objective of both tests is to get you through admission to colleges.
Whether you take any of these test
depends largely on the school you are applying to. While some schools
prefer ACT, others prefer SAT. It also depends on the nature of the
course the college offers. Most colleges use such criteria to determine
whether an applicant needs to appear for the ACT or SAT test. There are
also colleges that accept both examination scores. The difference
between these lies in the format of the test. Both differ in the way
they checks
the knowledge and skills of aspirants. The ACT is an achievement test
that tests your knowledge on all that you have learned at high school.
On the other hand, SAT is an aptitude test, a reasoning test that
assesses your ability to think and deduce.

ACT is being increasingly favoured against the
SAT test because of
its simple format and its nature of assessment. The ACT tests a
student’s readiness to join college. This is because the questions in
this assessment
include high school syllabus and can build on his/her subject of
interest in college. The SAT also has its share of favourites who feel
that the test emulates puzzles that are enjoyable to solve.

ACT vs SAT

The SAT has changed in format over the years
but still remains a
popular choice among students for its wide acceptability in colleges.
The ACT is also popular because of the format of the test and because
students feel they can do well in the subject of their choice. Listed
below are a few comparisons between the two tests that should help you
decide whether you want to appear.

The duration of SAT is 3 hours and 45 minutes. The duration of
the another test is 2 hours, 55 minutes. The writing test is allotted
an extra 30 minutes.

The current format of SAT includes the Critical Reasoning, Math,
and Writing an Essay sections. The ACT test has questions that are
framed around school syllabi, most of which you might have already
studied. The subjects tested are Math, English, Science, Reading and
Writing.

The essay writing section is a mandatory part of SAT. It tests
your
ability to communicate your thoughts using good vocabulary. The writing
test in ACT is optional.

The Critical reasoning section tests your ability to think
critically. It requires you to use your knowledge of vocabulary in the
Sentence Correction and Passage Reading sections. You also have more
time to answer the questions based on the passage compared to ACT which
allows you less time overall to answer questions. There is very little
reasoning involved in the ACT test; the reasoning is limited to the
Science section. The knowledge component is more and you need to work
hard in order to crack this test with high scores. This is because you
need to cover all the portions of the subjects to be able to answer
questions.

Overall, SAT is a test of aptitude that checks your ability to
think, reason through the given choices and answer questions. Thus, you
need to have a critical bent of mind to be able to score high in this
test. Contrary to SAT, ACT is a test of achievement. The test is an
endurance test because the questions outnumber the time given for the
test.

SAT has negative scoring; ¼ mark is deducted for every incorrect
answer and zero marks are allotted for unanswered questions. There are
no marks deducted in the ACT test.

Your Choice

Whether you appear for any these tests
is a matter of personal choice. Some students feel comfortable with the
SAT format whereas others feel they can score better with ACT. Colleges
have their individual preference of test; they might ask for any test
scores. Some colleges even accept both scores. You first need to check
with the college where you want to apply whether they accept ACT or SAT
examination scores. You must then identify the format that you
are comfortable with.